Understanding urban environment change is essential for sustainable development. However, current approaches, particularly remote sensing change detection, often rely on rigid, single-modal analysis. To overcome these limitations, we propose MMUEChange, a multi-modal agent framework that flexibly integrates heterogeneous urban data via a modular toolkit and a core module, Modality Controller for cross- and intra-modal alignment, enabling robust analysis of complex urban change scenarios. Case studies include: a shift toward small, community-focused parks in New York, reflecting local green space efforts; the spread of concentrated water pollution across districts in Hong Kong, pointing to coordinated water management; and a notable decline in open dumpsites in Shenzhen, with contrasting links between nighttime economic activity and waste types, indicating differing urban pressures behind domestic and construction waste. Compared to the best-performing baseline, the MMUEChange agent achieves a 46.7% improvement in task success rate and effectively mitigates hallucination, demonstrating its capacity to support complex urban change analysis tasks with real-world policy implications.
In urban environments, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications require accurate wireless channel characterization. This requirement is particularly critical at street-canyon intersections, where building blockage and rich multipath propagation can severely degrade link reliability. Due to its unique environmental layout, the channel characteristics in urban canyon are influenced by building distribution. However, this feature has not been well captured in existing channel models. In this paper, we propose an environment-related statistical channel model based on 5.8~GHz channel measurements. We construct a composite environmental factor to characterize environmental differences in intersections. Then, the factor is incorporated into 3GPP path-loss model and further linked to small-scale channel parameters. Finally, accuracy of the proposed model is validated using second-order channel statistics. The results show that the proposed model can effectively characterize propagation properties of urban street-canyon intersection channels with different building conditions. The proposed model provides a physically interpretable and statistically effective framework for channel simulation and performance evaluation in urban vehicular scenarios.
Abstract The rapid increase in world population in the 21st century, with associated transport and environmental problems, has encouraged the development of urban underground spaces as an optimal solution in many occasions, including urban renewal schemes. This paper reviews literature on the utilisation of urban underground space for urban renewal to provide a better understanding of how urban underground space can contribute to urban renewal, and of challenges and successes in achieving the goals. The paper concludes that urban underground space present new development opportunities (e.g. land/space supply, less traffic congestion, compact city development, and urban sustainable development) in regeneration of existing urban land. Urban underground spaces, as valuable resources and efficient and effective tools for urban renewal, should be considered by decision-makers for transforming existing urban areas, stimulating vibrant and denser development and mixed land use.
This study examines the evolving dynamics of U.S.–Nepal relations through the lens of Hegemonic Stability Theory (HST), focusing on the period from establishment of diplomatic ties to Biden administration. The objectives are to analyze U.S.–Nepal foreign policy initiatives, assess Nepal’s positioning within these policies, and apply HST to understand the interactions. Utilizing a descriptive-analytical approach to collect, descibe and analyse relevant data from academic sources and grey literature, the study highlights Nepal’s strategic importance amid shifting global and regional power dynamics. Findings indicate that U.S.–Nepal relations have been shaped by the U.S. goal of maintaining a balance between China and India, particularly during the Cold War. U.S. policy emphasized supporting Nepal’s sovereignty and democratic development in coordination with India to counter communist influence. Following the Cold War, U.S. engagement with Nepal increased, driven by regional dynamics and concerns, including the Maoist insurgency and War on Terror. As global power structures shifted from unipolarity to multipolarity, U.S. policy towards Nepal has remained unchanged in terms of development assistance through the USAID program and the recent Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) agreement. Although the U.S. has always consistently maintained that MCC is a bilateral development program, it has frequently been characterized in Nepal’s public discourse as a instrument of the Indo-Pacific Strategy. Despite deepening engagement, Nepal remains concerned that Indian perspectives are shaping U.S. policies towards Nepal. The study concludes by providing critical insights into U.S.–Nepal relations, suggesting that Nepal needs to redefine its foreign policy to engage more independently with the U.S., while balancing regional pressures and strengthening its institutional capacity to counter misinformation and check foreign influence over public discourse.
Anna Ágnes Benkő, Imola Gecséné Tar, Krisztina Szabó
Parasztkertjeink a magyar kultúra sajátos szegmensei. Generációkon át öröklődő hagyományok lenyomata a kert, mely egyszerre őrzi a múlt értékeit és tükrözi a jelen kihívásait, meghatározó szemléleteit. Népi kertkultúránk vizsgálata, a jellemző növényfajok feltárása mind örökségvédelmi, mind ökológiai szempontból hozzájárulhat a tervezői eszköztár és a tájépítészeti alkotásokban alkalmazott növényszortiment tudatos bővítéséhez. Vizsgálatunkban az ökológiai nézőpontból különösen érzékeny Homokhátságon található Fülöpszállás népi kert- és virágkultúráját tárjuk fel. A felmérés célja képet kapni a település kertkultúrájáról, különösen a hagyományos kertek növényalkalmazásáról.
This study leverages GPT-4o to assess neighbourhood housing quality using multi-source textural user-generated content (UGC) from Dianping, Weibo, and the Government Message Board. The analysis involves filtering relevant texts, extracting structured evaluation units, and conducting sentiment scoring. A refined housing quality assessment system with 46 indicators across 11 categories was developed, highlighting an objective-subjective method gap and platform-specific differences in focus. GPT-4o outperformed rule-based and BERT models, achieving 92.5% accuracy in fine-tuned settings. The findings underscore the value of integrating UGC and GPT-driven analysis for scalable, resident-centric urban assessments, offering practical insights for policymakers and urban planners.
Urban land use classification and mapping are critical for urban planning, resource management, and environmental monitoring. Existing remote sensing techniques often lack precision in complex urban environments due to the absence of ground-level details. Unlike aerial perspectives, street view images provide a ground-level view that captures more human and social activities relevant to land use in complex urban scenes. Existing street view-based methods primarily rely on supervised classification, which is challenged by the scarcity of high-quality labeled data and the difficulty of generalizing across diverse urban landscapes. This study introduces an unsupervised contrastive clustering model for street view images with a built-in geographical prior, to enhance clustering performance. When combined with a simple visual assignment of the clusters, our approach offers a flexible and customizable solution to land use mapping, tailored to the specific needs of urban planners. We experimentally show that our method can generate land use maps from geotagged street view image datasets of two cities. As our methodology relies on the universal spatial coherence of geospatial data ("Tobler's law"), it can be adapted to various settings where street view images are available, to enable scalable, unsupervised land use mapping and updating. The code will be available at https://github.com/lin102/CCGP.
Climate change and rising thermal comfort demand make residential heating and cooling central to building-sector decarbonization. This study presents the first bottom-up modeling framework to estimate residential heating and cooling loads across 30 Chinese provinces. The model, developed using EnergyPlus simulations of representative building prototypes, captures energy consumption patterns in both urban and rural housing over the period 1980-2024. The results indicate that: (1) In 2020, Guangdong recorded the highest cooling loads (76.5 TWh/a urban; 63.0 TWh/a rural). Henan exhibited the highest rural heating load (174.6 TWh/a), while urban heating loads were highest in Liaoning and Shandong. (2) Between 1980 and 2024, average urban cooling loads increased from 12.4 to 15.1 kWh/m2 a, whereas rural cooling loads declined from 22.63 to 19.87 kWh/m2 a. Urban heating loads decreased from 44.08 to 39.92 kWh/m2 a, and rural heating loads declined more markedly from 100.15 to 72.42 kWh/m2 a. (3) Urban residential floor area has exceeded rural stock in 22 provinces in recent years, compared with only four provinces in 2000. Moreover, the existence of 12 urban energy-efficiency standards versus a single rural standard highlights persistent envelope-performance disparities. These structural and regulatory differences have produced sustained urban-rural divergence in residential heating and cooling demand. The proposed framework provides a replicable basis for region-specific clean heating strategies and differentiated building standards to support carbon neutrality.
Abstract Urban renewal has been an important strategic choice to promote urban development. It involves multiple stakeholders with different interests, such as the government, enterprises, communities, and residents, which is a complex collective action. Therefore, how to coordinate the complex interest demands of various stakeholders in urban renewal, improve the efficiency of urban renewal projects, and ensure the orderly progress of urban renewal is crucial. To address this issue, a network model of urban renewal by using the social network method is constructed. The networks of 531 Shenzhen urban renewal projects and 300 Chongqing urban renewal projects in 2019 were compared and analyzed by UCINET6 software. This study takes urban renewal project governance as the research objective and makes a more comprehensive analysis of the existing problems in urban renewal. The results show that the cooperative relationship of multiple entities in the process of urban renewal affects the result of urban renewal. Improving the cooperative relationship between multiple entities in urban renewal will facilitate the successful implementation of urban renewal projects and improve the effect of urban renewal. Finally, to promote the realization of the diversified goals of urban renewal, this study proposes strategies to improve urban renewal governance from many aspects: optimize the urban renewal negotiation platform, increase the participation of multiple entities in urban renewal, regulate the behavior of participants in urban renewal through policies and regulations.
Abstract Since the late 1970s, China's fast growth of economy and urbanization have driven large-scale urban renewal projects. To deal with complex urban problems, urban renewal requires integrated, coordinated and multifaceted strategies involving a wide range of stakeholders. A deeper understanding of the stakeholders in the decision-making process is an essential step towards sustainable urban renewal. This paper aims to understand the stakeholders and their participation in the decision-making of urban renewal in China, using the case of Chongqing. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and a questionnaire survey. Stakeholder Analysis and Social Network Analysis were complemented as the research methodology. First, the stakeholders involved in urban renewal decision-making were clarified. Second, the characteristics, including knowledge, power, and interest of each stakeholder, were analyzed. Third, the relationships between stakeholders were probed, and the structure of their network was examined. Finally, policy implications were drawn to the issues of stakeholder participation in urban renewal decision-making in China.
This study examines the sustainability of urban growth, described by patterns of environmental fitness. The main assumption is that resource use—energy, materials, electricity, water, fossil fuels, soil, and humans—describes growth patterns whose sustainability can be categorized according to environmental fitness, which is assessed by the availability of environmental resources (characteristics of the environment) and the adaptation of the city to this availability (characteristics of the built environment). The article offers an innovative perspective by proposing a model for categorizing the sustainability of urban growth based on environmental fitness, but also by providing a mean to understand the city as a process and the city as a satisfier of needs. The methodology comprises two parts: (1) creating a matrix of indicators of urban environmental fitness and (2) constructing an urban growth sustainability index. From this methodology, six patterns emerged: (i) Economizing growth: available resources with maximum urban adaptation; (ii) Weak growth: availability of resources with minimal urban adaptation; (iii) Efficient growth: availability of resources with appropriate urban adaptation; (iv) Deficient growth: availability of resources without urban adaptation; (v) Efficient growth and of investment: lack of resources with urban investment; and (vi) Deficient growth and of degradation: lack of resources with urban deterioration and wear. The finding of these sustainable urban growth patterns demonstrates the concrete application of environmental adaptation theories and an understanding of the global behavior of cities. The empirical results support the assertion that urban growth presents challenges and potentials in terms of reduction, of reuse, and recycling; of urban sprawl, urban renewal, redevelopment and infill growth, and the efficiency and maintenance of urban infrastructure as guidelines for urban sustainability.
Gender disparity (GD) significantly impacts housing development, especially in developing countries like Nigeria, where socioeconomic and cultural barriers constrain equitable housing access. This study investigates the features and effects of GD on housing development in Iwo Central Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria. Using a mixed-method approach, data were collected from 328 respondents through questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including indices and ANOVA. Key findings highlight societal mindsets as the most influential feature of GD, followed by lack of bodily autonomy and employment equality, with respective relative significance indices (RSIs) of 4.23, 4.06, and 4.00. Denied access to housing and homelessness emerged as the most critical effects of GD, with effects indices (EGDIs) of 4.36 and 4.31. Regression analysis revealed a significant relationship between GD characteristics and housing development (F = 99.964, p = 0.04), emphasizing the pervasive impact of GD on housing equity. The study concludes that GD restricts women's access to adequate housing, perpetuating socioeconomic inequalities. Recommendations include promoting gender-responsive housing policies, enhancing women's access to affordable housing finance, and integrating gender equity into urban planning and housing design. Addressing GD is crucial for fostering inclusive, equitable, and sustainable housing development in Nigeria.
The integration of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies offers transformative opportunities for public health informatics in urban safety and pedestrian well-being. This paper proposes a novel framework utilizing these technologies for enhanced 3D object detection and activity classification in urban traffic scenarios. By employing elevated LiDAR, we obtain detailed 3D point cloud data, enabling precise pedestrian activity monitoring. To overcome urban data scarcity, we create a specialized dataset through simulated traffic environments in Blender, facilitating targeted model training. Our approach employs a modified Point Voxel-Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (PV-RCNN) for robust 3D detection and PointNet for classifying pedestrian activities, significantly benefiting urban traffic management and public health by offering insights into pedestrian behavior and promoting safer urban environments. Our dual-model approach not only enhances urban traffic management but also contributes significantly to public health by providing insights into pedestrian behavior and promoting safer urban environment.
Abstract With the rapid process of urbanisation in China, the challenges facing cities with regard to urban fabric, urban function, and human living conditions are enormous. Urban renewal provides opportunities to address these challenges and realise sustainable development. This study proposes a framework for integrating an indicator evaluation system and a decision-making matrix for urban renewal at the neighbourhood level in China; the level at which most development projects take place in a city. The indicator system covers subjective and objective evaluations on different aspects of neighbourhoods to shed light on specific problems and characteristics, namely, social aspects, economic aspects, environmental aspects, land use forms, building conditions, and facility conditions. The decision-making matrix is designed to provide implementation paths and corresponding strategies for urban renewal. The proposed framework was tested using a case study of eight neighbourhoods of Qixinggang, Yuzhong District, Chongqing in China. The results show the status quo and problems of the selected neighbourhoods and specific strategies to address these are subsequently proposed. Via in-depth investigations on various neighbourhoods within a city, decision-makers are capable of locating key areas and adjusting practical approaches from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to ones that are customised and offer small-scale improvements. The proposed framework can shed light on other empirical cities that possess similar local characteristics.
To achieve sustainable development, the improvement of villagers’ subjective well-being has become the main policy goal of urban village renewal. However, the mechanism of how urban village renewal affects subjective well-being remains untested in previous research. Utilizing the survey data on 414 resettled households in the urban village renewal through a random sample method in Wuhan, China, we adopted the intermediary model to test the mechanism of how urban village renewal affects the resettled villagers’ subjective well-being. We explored the contribution rate of each intermediary variable to subjective well-being through Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition and, consequently, proposed corresponding policy suggestions. The results show that the renewal of urban villages can improve the economic conditions, housing conditions, social security status, and living environments of residents and significantly enhance the subjective well-being of the resettled villagers and households. The multi-dimensional changes resulting from the renewal of urban villages increase subjective well-being through complete mediation. The Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition results demonstrate that improvement of the living environment has the strongest influence on subjective well-being, with a contribution rate of 69.81%. In the future, the renewal of urban villages should focus on environmental improvement, protect neighborhood networks, and promote community engagement, so as to realize the sustainable redevelopment of urban villages.
Abstract This paper attempts to analyse the politics of urban renewal through the anatomy of the conflicting discourses on the changes in China's urban villages. Specifically, this paper investigates the case of Liede Village, Guangzhou, a typical urban village in China, and its innovative reconstruction model. Based on the methods of participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and textual analysis, this paper finds that the official media conducted a top-down construction of Liede Village's reconstruction as a mainstream social and economic activity from which a modernised model for Chinese urban renewal has been strongly established; the villagers also respond to the strong construction of the official media coverage by conducting bottom-up protests that aim to safeguard their rights through alternative discourse constructions. In this sense, this study found that urban renewal is not only physical or socially related but politically related. There are significant differences in the discourse construction methods and operational logic of different power subjects. To resolve these conflicts, the discourse knowledge systems within urban villages should be reformed so that the Chinese government can more effectively govern these complex social spaces. This paper provides an alternative understanding of China's urban renewal from the perspective of discourse politics, which enriches existing studies on urban sustainability, social justice and urban governance for the wider human geographers, urban scholars and sociologists, especially the wider discussions on urban renewal in other countries.
Revitalization is an important process in action area planning, especially in the heritage sites located within urban area contexts. Varied techniques and tools of revitalization are applied at various spatial levels, some are suitable for the urban scope, and others suit the architectural building scope. Urban DNA is a term used academically to reflect social, economic, and urban characteristics but has a different interpretation that depends on the spatial scale and context. In action areas, urban DNA refers to the essential visual, social, economic, and physical characteristics that preserve the vital structure of an urban area. Heritage areas are vital in a city structure, in the journey of maximizing the urban DNA chrematistics of heritage sites, sometimes the urban DNA is lost in the process. This paper identifies and encapsulates the importance of Urban DNA in heritage site considerations in the revitalization process within heritage urban context to maximize the socio-economic and visual impacts, especially in declined cities such as Foah City the case study in the Nile Delta region in Egypt. The results pinpoint the most effective urban DNA structure for the declined Foah Heritage Center, despite the city's importance as a ranked third of heritage cities in the country.
Rapid urbanization is leading to a drastic hike in anthropogenic activities and urban surface alterations. As a result, there are many repercussions, one of them being higher temperatures in urban areas when compared to rural areas. This phenomenon is termed Urban Heat Island (UHI). The impacts of urban surface characteristics, climate, and population density on UHI have been extensively studied. However, the influence of UHI on the local climate remains elusive. Relatively few studies demonstrate interrelation between UHI, population density, and unanticipated precipitation events. Therefore, it is important to comprehend the connection as it can impact extreme temperature events like heat waves and unanticipated precipitation events like flash flooding. The objective of this study is to investigate the association between UHI, population density, and precipitation in the summer and winter seasons in Indian Western Coastal Cities. To comprehend this association, a hypothesis test employing the Spearman rank correlation coefficient is conducted for 1991, 2001, 2011, and 2021. From the study, it is found that in summer, the surface temperature is directly proportional to population density and inversely proportional to precipitation. In winter the contrary relation is observed. This study also provides the seasonal variation and temporal evolution of the correlation among the parameters. This research will aid in making informed decisions for urban planning and addressing climate change.